They strongly deplete animal populations and notably reduce a number of rare and vulnerable species through habitat degradation, sport hunting and especially through exploitation for bushmeat, which is exacerbated by drought-related food deficits.

Even the illegal commercial hunting of great apes and other animals for food - known as the bushmeat trade - would not be nearly as widespread if not for the logging and mining roads that are cut through forests, allowing access to previously remote habitat of gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans.

According to the authors, the so-called bushmeat crisis is the focus of many conservation organizations, whose advocacy for a "crackdown" on the trade has fostered confusion and misunderstanding about the links between hunting, wildlife trade, livelihoods, and ecosystems.

Each year, rural peoples consume some 2.2 billion pounds (one million metric tons) of so-called bushmeat from wildlife, the equivalent of four million cattle; the flesh accounts for 80 percent of the protein and fat in their diet.

Contributing to the conservation challenge is the Central African "bushmeat" problem, which has developed as poor living conditions have caused many Congolese to poach animals in order to supplement their diet or to gain income.